Aventurine

Aventurine is a translucent form of quartzite, a rock, in which flat, plate-like inclusions of other minerals give a glittering shimmer called aventurescence. It is most often green, thanks to chromium-bearing fuchsite mica, which can give it a sheen of silvery green or blue, but it also comes in orange and brown, tinted by hematite or goethite, and in yellow, blue and grey. Being a rock rather than a single crystal, its hardness and weight vary, and it is a little softer than ordinary quartz. Its name comes from the Italian a ventura, 'by chance', handed on from goldstone, a glass said to have been made by accident at Murano and now a common imitation of it. Most green and blue-green material comes from India, and much of it is carved into beads and figures. Hall describes it as opaque and flecked with shiny particles, easy to find, and calls it a stone of prosperity that protects against environmental pollution and encourages creativity, perception and calm. Cunningham places it under Mercury and the element of air; he uses it to sharpen perception, intelligence and creativity, in gambling and money magic, for peace and healing, and as a general stone of luck.